For the casual tourist, Brest has little to offer, and few relics of the past remain. The fifteenth-century castle looks impressive on its headland and offers a superb panorama of the city, but once inside it's not especially interesting. Three of its towers house part of the collection of the Musée National de la Marine (April to mid-Sept daily 10am–6.30pm; mid-Sept to mid-Dec, Feb & March Mon & Wed–Sun 10am–noon & 2–6pm; €4.60). The fourteenth-century Tour Tanguy on the opposite bank of the River Penfeld, with its conical slate roof, serves as a history museum of Brest before 1939 (June–Sept daily 10am–noon & 2–7pm; Oct–May Wed & Thurs 2–5pm, Sat & Sun 2–6pm; free).Brest's most up-to-the-minute attraction is Océanopolis, a couple of kilometres east of the city centre beside the Port de Plaisance du Moulin-Blanc (daily: April–Aug 9am–6pm; Sept–March Tues–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 10am–6pm; www.oceanopolis.com; €13.50, under-18s €10). This futuristic complex currently consists of three distinct aquariums and a 3-D cinema. The aquarium in the main white dome, known as the Temperate Pavilion, focuses on the Breton littoral and Finistère's fishing industry, holding all kinds of fish, seals, molluscs, seaweed and sea anemones. The emphasis is very much on the edible, with the displays on the life-cycle of a scallop, for example, culminating in a detailed recipe. That's complemented by a Tropical Pavilion, with a tankful of ferocious-looking sharks plus a myriad of rainbow-hued smaller fish that populate a highly convincing coral reef, and a Polar Pavilion, complete with polar bears and penguins. Everything's very high-tech, and perhaps a little too earnest for some visitors' tastes, but it's quite possible to spend an entertaining day on site – especially if you take the assorted restaurants, snack bars and gift stores into consideration.
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